For us, inhabitants of the Earth, the risk of being absorbed by this immense black hole is totally nil. The researchers behind its discovery point out that these events took place very far away in space, at a time also very distant, when the universe was only half its current age. And if the phenomenon is observable today, it is because light took billions of years to reach us.
We also learn that this discovery was made by accident. Using the Hubble telescope, scientist Pieter van Dokkum has “REMARK (…) a little drag” of stars described as “utterly amazing, very, very brilliant and very unusual”. “It was unlike anything we had seen before”, he confided. This kind of black hole, which had never been observed before, could not be an isolated case, notes NASA.
The space agency and the scientific community are counting in particular on the new Nancy Grace Roman telescope, which should be launched during the decade, to refine their research. It is supposed to allow a much wider observation of space, with the ability to spot other star trails, signs of the presence of black holes.